McDonalds..we love to see you smile?

Hm Im not too sure I agree totally with what your saying, Sure many MCD are like that or maybe it is the MCD in America is like that. Because I used to work in McD too in Australia, and I was trained to work very fast, work everything at once, and of course most important to multitask :) Of course some days I get to 'slack off' if there are too many people on a shifts, the manager will divide say maybe 3 person handling the cashier, 1 person handling the fries and drinks, another 3 at the back doing the burgers and 1 person doing food preparation and if there are excess person, they could help cashiers get the food and bags them etc2 or do dinings. But some day, which is usually most day, each of us hold the cashier, bag the food, take the fries, prepare the drinks, and do dinings, while maintaining politeness and smile all the time. And the person at the back will hurry and make soo many burgers. And when I first started there I was also told that customer is very important, smile, greet them, and make them happy basically that is our jobs :) So I guess that not all McD are like you described, although I gotta admit that some McD are exactly what you said. :)

I think you are right. I think they make so much as a corporation, that customer service isn't necessarily a priority anymore. Because there are so many customers that losing a few here or there really makes no impact on them. I think a lot of things have gone this way.

I agree with you totally on this. To me they are all like robots as they have only been trained for one job. It would make much more sense if they learnt how to multitask. I have also been told I am too agressive as I like to do things right and do them efficiently at the same time and cannot abide slow people. I also think a smile for the customer is the first prioritory in customer service. It is like being a secretary, smile before you pick up the phone that way customers can hear you are a happy person just with your voice.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said if you're as huge as McD's it doesn't matter, it's all about the money. It's really too bad we put up with this type of service. I think all staff should be taught to multi-task (in any type of job) as this improves customer service as well as getting more work done. There is no need to stand idle while another area is backed up in my opinion.

i hate going to a mcd's evertime i go they mess up my order and i am very detailed in what i want. makes me so mad. being a truck driver i dont have time to wait until they can get it right

You are so right! I worked in retail and as a mgr I would have supervisors that thought it one or two people didnt show up, they couldnt function! And you can,it might take some multi tasking but can be done and helps time go by faster. And ya know, it doesnt help morale for that mgr to be complaining in front of customers. Thats when she/he needs to pep talk everyone and say lets do it! I would drop a note or a call to the main mgr or district mgr, before they lose sales and dollars, then they wont have a reason to smile! Thanks for the post! it hit home!

I commend you I could never work in one of those places let alone McDonalds. You would always have that smell in you.

I have to say that the mcdonalds over here are not like the one you´ve just described. here the staff are definately multitasking and they are always giving great service with a smile on their faces ... So maybe you just had bad luck - or maybe it varies from country to country!

wouldnt the fact that everyone working at different stations be considered team work? everyone doing something to get a job done. I worked at mcdonalds for about 3 years and loved it. When people call in or dont show up it is hard to compensate and get a job done faster. One time there was a meeting so it was only me on front register, one peron in grill area and one person in drive thru. we got 2 buses! However we did handle the people and they all got their food. it may have taken 20 minutes to get the food but with 3 people up against 50 PLUS people in drive thru, what do you expect? People can only move so fast.

I used to work for Mc Donald's and they are all cross-trained and they do work in teams.. I used to be on the grill team.. As a member of the grill team I toasted buns, grilled burgers, cooked bacon, cooked chicken nuggets, made salads, and helped anyone in the grill area that got backed up, such as building the burgers... During their busier hours it was easier to assign you a particular task but everyone backed up everyone else too. For instance, for breakfast I made the buscuits (they were homemade then, don't know if they still are) baked the pies and cookies (not all mcd's sells the cookies, but we did) I also made the salad basics (lettuce in a bowl) and placed those in the refrigerator to build salads from as they were ordered and in between, I washed dishes and backed up the grill team.. if I was on the grill team that day I cooked the sausage, and the eggs, and the hotcakes and backed up the assembly team... The biggest problem with McDonald's is that they are strict about food holding times, so you can't make food ahead. If you were waiting on sausage biscuits, chances are it was because they were waiting for biscuits to come out of the oven... that was usually what held us up as we were only allowed to make X amount of pans at a time... and if you get there right before breakfast changes over to lunch you may have a longer wait too, as they weed out the breakfast foods to make room for the lunch foods so they get to where they pretty much make to order so less food is thrown away when breakfast is officially over... Also consider the fact that Mc Donald's caters pretty much to young kids and young adults that have little or no prior experience working much less working in the food service industry. I think McDonald's has a great business model, but just like with everyone else, there are always things that can be improved upon. Something else to ponder on too.... by law kids under the age of 18 can not work the ovens, the grill, or use knives or any other instrument that can hurt them, which is why you generally see the really young people working the drive through and front counter areas.. take this and also figure in that being teen agers with little or no experience, and the fact that most teens go to work to socialize, they don't anticipate that they will get "slammed" and don't prepare for it..this is why there are so many "managers" at mc donalds.. I used to call them "glorified babysitters " because they had to stay on top of their team and keep everyone focused..another reason why they generally assign them one main task...and then to back up others as needed.. Then lastly add the fact that they are young people, and young people will wake up and decide that they would rather go shopping or out with friends then to go to work, so they call in... alot... They do not care if it makes everyone else have to take up their slack. They do not have loyalty to the job..they are young..their loyalty lies in doing what they want to do when they want to do it.. Since you thought that the restaurant was adequately staffed, chances are that you saw young people who are not allowed in the grill area because they aren't old enough to handle the tools and utensils and your wait was because whomever was old enough was running around trying to get a whole lot done. Like I said..there is room for improvement... but all in all Mc Donald's does a really good job considering who they work with.. (although I personally do not like their food) lol

All staffs on establishment should be well trained and multi-tasked. There are alot of peoples demands and like inside a restaurant. People working inside it should do fast actions so that customers will say this is of good service.

That sounds pretty frustrating. Thats so odd that they think you have a problem for multi-tasking. Very odd. I do see people multi-tasking at my local McDonalds when I go there, which is maybe twice a year. I think it depends on the location.

wow ive never thought of it that way. im like you i thought that fast food was supposed to be team work.huh.....oh well apparently they wanna lose business :)

Restaurant business does take a lot of team work and it is most important for the restauranteers cause smooth working and proper customer service is the mantra,and if a McD cant satisfy these basic requirements then they will definately end up spoiling the name of the chain.

Yeah I can see how that would be annoying but he, even as manager is just the little guy there too. I can imagine that he has to follow policy guidelines set by McDonalds that probably say something about employees having only oneresponsibility. I think it is because they seriously under estimate people's ability to multi-task.... yes even those that are willing to work there.

Not even McDonald's, but there's been some fast food places in general that do that too. I used to work at Wendy's and after working at KFC for a year and a half, Wendy's way of working was too weird for me. They had someone taking money at the first window, one making sandwiches, one doing fries/nuggets/strips, one person at the front counter, one taking the order, and one getting the orders together. When I worked at KFC, I ran drive thru so I took money, took orders, got drinks together and got the stuff ready to pass it out the window. Most of the time I was even taking orders and getting the orders together, or hopping up front and helping out front counter while taking orders. When I worked at KFC, you had one person at the front counter who rang up the orders(two if it got busy) and usually 1 or 2 people actually getting the orders together. Then the one person on drive thru doing all of what I explained above and then 1 or 2 people on drive thru getting orders together, all while one of the people on drive thru made sandwiches as they needed them, or dipping up sides when you needed them. I think other restaurants need to follow that guide. Not only just for teamwork, but it makes other people feel really useless when everyone has a specific task. When I worked at Wendy's my job was to handle money, put buns in the microwave and do the dishes, and I never had stuff to do when I wasn't doing that.. unless it got late at night, so there wasn't but 2 or 3 people there, then I got to take orders, too.

If they had people who knew how to multi-task, it wouldn't be such a big thing when help doesn't show up. Maybe the manager should have gotten someone else on the register and then went and hustled his buns. That was not intended as a pun. I worked in cafes and restaurants for years and teamwork made it so much easier.

McDonalds is disgusting. Don't eat there.

Great post-- So true.. I worked at McD's through college years ago.. I was one of the multi-taskers.. I could not stand to wait-- so at night when things slowed down a bit- I would take the orders and make the food alot of times.. Customers should not have to wait. I go to McD's once in a great while now-- mostly because the food is so bad! and not at all good for you... But it's always the same- hurry up and wait! They make me so mad-- So yes our money does make them smile-- not the workers, but the Corporation, the stockholders, the managers who get compensated on dollars sold per day, etc. And they are supposed to make us SMILE!

I like eating sometimes in a McD's but I really hate people who work in it! I don't know way but I can't accept their way of serve, speak and work in general. I worked in a fastfood (not McD's!!!) 4 years and I know very well how is work! But I never understand how you could be so slowly!!! Just a month ago I wait for 45 minutes to have lunch and I swear that I have just 10-12 people before me!!!Terrible!